Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
“A camera is a device used to capture images”
as still photographs

For reasons that I don't fully understand, shirts with English on them are extremely common in Japan. I think it's considered “cool”. It's been this way since before I first came 20 years ago.

Sometimes what is written is a bit odd or silly, like the shirt above, on a lady watching a magic show (at Blume no Oka).

Most often, though, what is written makes absolutely no sense.   At all.   But that's okay, because most of the population doesn't have the ability to realize that it makes no sense, so everyone remains stylish and happy.

Here's a representative one I recently came across at Kyoto Station:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
10
Every day starts
I AM GENTLE AND ONLY THE MOST
PAINFUL TIME IS GENTLE
TO THE PERSON

Really, that's very typical.

I have to believe that it's done on purpose, because it's rarely “Japlish”, the kind of mistaken English that a Japanese speaker is likely to produce when they attempt English. I think the more likely explanation here is a large quantity of psychedelic drugs at the nations clothiers.

This is common in Japan, but not limited to Japan: my wife has some shirts with nonsensical English on them, but she got them all in The States, at American Eagle Outfitters. She didn't know/care what they said... only that they were stylish.

Here's one sported by a guy sitting in front of us at an outdoor free concert in May:

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 31 mm — ¹/1500 sec, f/4, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
FUTURISTIC ENGLISHNESS

I asked him (in Japanese) whether he knew what it meant, and it turns out that he hadn't even really ever looked at the text or even noticed that there was text. He bought the shirt, he said, because he liked the color and style.

Since he couldn't tell me what it meant, I remain unenlightened, but perhaps it's somehow a presage for how future generations will speak...

Every time I head up to Shogunzuka like I did yesterday, I have to go by car because motorcycles are not allowed on the final part of the road going up the mountain. (I think because there was a big problem with drag racers and such 15 years ago.)

Motorcycles are allowed on the lower part of the mountain, but only sometimes....

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/10 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
“No Motorcycles”

---

Saturday, Sunday, and Holidays
All Day

---

Other Than Saturday, Sunday, and Holidays
9am - 7am

It took a few moments to let this sink in before I actually understood the meaning: Motorcycles prohibited except weekdays 7am-9am.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bamboo By the Side of the Road

Portrait-Mode Vertical Desktop-Background Versions
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I made the 10-minute scooter ride this morning to Kyoto's Yamashina Ward, to explore what I thought was a mountain road that I discovered yesterday with Google Earth. Sadly, it turns out that the road is not open to the public. Still, I came away with a few nice shots from the mountain-village area just prior to the gate.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 1100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Entrance to Someone's Garden

This is all very close to the concrete jungle that is Kyoto... perhaps half a mile (it's two miles from my place), but as I've mentioned so many times (especially here), once you get into the mountains, you feel like the city is a million miles away.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Roadside Fence
complete with moss-covered foundation

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 29 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fence Au Natural

I'm not really happy with this last shot because it makes it look more like piled up debris than a nice fence, but it's a nice fence. It's sort of a rustic version of this nice wall at the Giouji Temple.

At one point I took a wrong turn and took a road that slowly morphed into an increasingly rough path up into the mountain. I eventually realized that it had become a hiking path (one that eventually hooks up to a path I've hiked up to Mt. Daimonji). I eventually turned around, but not before taking a few pictures of one of the many logs that had fallen across the path-side stream...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 56 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Temporary Ecosystem

This particular log, once you got in close, seemed to be a botanical city unto its own. I really didn't do a good job in the few shots I took.... I'll have to go back if I ever get a good macro lens...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos

After lunch, I happened to have the camera with me when I picked up Anthony from school, and took the opportunity to snap a picture of some huge trees in the schoolyard that were pruned to within an inch of their life a month or so ago...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/13, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Skeletons of Trees Past

I don't know what it is with pruning in Japan, but it seems that they really like to do it.

These trees are huge... six or eight stories tall. Here's the top 30' or so of one of them... (with the sky wildly overexposed, to allow some detail in the tree):

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos

The tree is stark enough in the winter even with its branches (see here), but at this point it's just a sad sight.

I'm still interested in capturing an amazing sunset like the one I saw a month ago, but from the photographically advantageous vantage offered by Shogunzuka and its sweeping views of Kyoto. Today's late afternoon was overcast with absolutely no promise for a colorful sunset, but one doesn't score big by waiting for a sure thing, so I again slogged up there in hopes I'd be surprised.

As I was walking up to the overlook, a group of middle-school girls were doing some kind of jumping play while their taxi driver snapped a picture, so without breaking my stride I did as well. This shot caught them all airborne...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 135 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ancient Japanese “Nice Sunset” Ritual Dance
or something like that

The guy at left is the taxi driver, snapping a picture of his fare just like the one I featured last month at this same location.

The way the path leading to the overlook is lower than the overlook makes for some nice silhouette opportunities. The shot above is sloppy in that respect, but I had a nice sunset silhouette last month, and some nice nighttime silhouettes last summer.

The sunset itself was okay... a bit nicer than average, perhaps. It was much hazier than normal, so the difference made it interesting...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 130 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Kyoto
is under that haze, somewhere

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Haze Makes for Nice Sunbeams
but I still have a hard time capturing them

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm & heavily cropped — ¹/1250 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Dipping Behind a Mountain

Anthony wanted to take a picture, so I handed him my Nikon D700 with the huge Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom on it. That much camera in the hands of a six-year-old makes for a comical sight, but he got a nice shot....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photo by Anthony

He was getting chilly, though, so we didn't stick around too much longer.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
My Parting Shot
I like the clouds

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm — ¹/1250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — full exif
“Welcome”

I was at Arthur's house today helping out a bit with his remodel, and couldn't help but notice how lovely an effect the crumpled leaves made as they surrounded the stepping-stones in his garden.

The leaves came from this tree, now mostly devoid of color or leaves...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — full exif
Winter Approaches

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/800 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 — full exif
Tenacity

For reference, here's what they looked like 10 days ago, as they were approaching full color...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 — full exif
During a Bygone Time
10 whole days ago

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1800 — full exif

I also had some shots at full color, from a week ago, but I seemed to have deleted them by accident during a dyslexic moment when I zero-filled the wrong memory card. Doh!.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/3.5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
We May Be Individually Weak, but Working Together...

On our trip to Takamatsu this time last year for a concert, we drove across the Akashi Straights Bridge (明石海峡大橋), which, with a main span of almost 2km long, is the longest suspension bridge in the world. The whole bridge itself is 3,911 meters long.

A mile or so past the southern end is a big parking area with shops, a little park, and (of all things) a Ferris wheel (“the largest at a highway rest stop in Japan, if not the world”).

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/350 sec, f/3.2, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Scale

There's also a section of the main suspension cable on display...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cable Cross Section of 36,830 Individual Strands
with the 4km long bridge in the background

Just looking at the steel wire that goes into making the big main cables involves some staggering numbers. This plate was affixed to the display...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
stats on the
“Akashi Kaikyou Big Bride Cable”

Each individual steel strand is 5.23mm in diameter (a bit more than a fifth of an inch), and there are 127 such strands in each of the 290 hexagon-shaped bundles that make up the cable. Grand total: 36,830 strands, with a diameter of 112cm (3.7 feet).

Assuming that the cutaway on display is one meter long, that puts the total length of its strands, if placed end on end, at almost 23 miles! In just that little cutaway display. It weighs over 27,000 pounds.

A pair of these cables span the entire length of the bridge, draped across two towers and anchored on either side. Each is 4,073 meters long, putting the end-to-end length of the individual strands at over 150,000km (93,211 miles). Each. Adding the strands from the two cables together will get you more than three quarters of the way to the moon.

Trivia: after a big earthquake hit this area in 1995, the two towers found themselves one meter further apart. Hence, the main span, which was supposed to have been 1,990 meters upon completion, ended up being 1,991 meters when construction was finally completed three years later.

Oh, and speaking of trivia, if you didn't guess it, this is the answer to yesterday's quiz.

Anyway, we took a ride in the Ferris wheel...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Largest Highway-Rest-Stop Ferris Wheel in Japan”
woo-hoo!

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/60 sec, f/5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Kids Play Area Down Below

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Concrete-Desert Rest Area

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/4.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looking South
a bit of spark in the sunset brightens up a dreary day

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 120 mm — ¹/500 sec, f/4.8, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
City of Akashi Lit Up By the Sunset
behind the southern tower